NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 15: Rugby athlete Ilona Maher poses for a portrait during the 2024 Team … [+] USA Media Summit at Marriott Marquis Hotel on April 15, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
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Paris 2024 looks to be a special year, not just because Tokyo 2020, the Summer Olympics’ last installment, was played off-schedule. More importantly, the timing of the games is just right when you consider the surge in TV viewership of women’s sports.
Star USA rugby player Ilona Maher, a strong and fast 5-foot-10 veteran who plays the position of center and prop for Team USA, thinks Paris 2024 can also be a time for rugby to shine, with special help from the US Women’s team.
“It will be a lot different than Tokyo. Tokyo was after a COVID year. There were no fans, it was very restrictive, and wasn’t what an Olympics usually is,” Maher said during our recent interview, via Zoom.
“When it comes to the sport,” Maher added, “every time we’ve been in the Olympics, first with Rio (in 2016), and since, we have seen an uptick in people joining up to play rugby.”
Maher, a 27-year-old lifelong athlete, only started playing rugby a decade ago, right before entering college. She added that aid that after each of the last two Olympics, “girls come up to us, me and teammates, and say ‘I saw you in the Olympics and then joined girls rugby.’”
Maher said she hopes that this year’s Olympic Games, combined with the fury around sports stoked in part by basketball sensation Caitlin Clark, will see a rising tide for women’s sports.
“I hope to see another uptick for our sport. The Olympics are so important because all eyes are on it,” Maher said.
Related story: Is Ilona Maher rugby’s most exciting player?
Diehards of rugby generally follow two major formats of the international game.
Rugby 15s is the format of “rugby union” players is one in which 15 players on each side compete in two halves, each lasting 40 minutes. In this format, strong and versatile players like Maher, a center, become key playmakers on both offense and defense.
VIDEO: Maher and USA Rugby “get muddy” on and off the field in Laos
Then there is Rugby 7s, a seven-on-seven player format of short games on a similar field, which is the format used in the Olympics, not only because of its short games, but because some say that the faster ball movement is easier for TV viewers to enjoy.
Maher pointed out that Americans’ passion for high-scoring and fast-paced sports is a likely factor in the USA’s smaller but growing rugby audience and something that makes Americans more attuned to the dynamic nature of Rugby 7s.
One of the things that Maher said helps her personal mission to bring more interest to rugby and, ultimately, more girls into rugby is social media. “Social media is an especially powerful tool to get more girls and boys into the game.”
Maher explained that Americans are still learning to love the sport. “A lot of times, people see a video of me or someone else running hard with a ball, hitting, so something that makes them sit up and say ‘what’s this?’”
Maher currently boasts over a half million active Instagram followers, double the following of USA Rugby itself and more than any other American rugby player. Maher also has 1.1 million TikTok followers.
“TikTok has been great for me personally. And for female athletes, (social media) is an important brand builder. Like a lot of women’s sports, there’s not a lot of money in playing rugby. But as someone who plays the game and loves it as a job, social media is how you do it now.”
On top of her social media celebrity, Maher has also been tapped by TEDx Talks to talk about the topics of drive and commitment. She’s also grabbed the attention of Shape magazine and Access Hollywood, and earlier this year, Maher was profiled in People Magazine.
Maher also said that she thinks that, especially on social media, women athletes often have a gift.
“I think in certain sports star power helps. Like with Caitlin Clark in basketball, Serena (Williams) in tennis, and even Ronda Rousey in fighting sports—women athletes connect,” often better and more firmly to fans, she says, “with their personality.”
Body positivity influencer Ilona Maher is the newest sports ambassador for Secret, noting that … [+] “sweat is normal, especially for athletes.”
courtesy photo: Secret
Conquer the sports world? No sweat
This month, as the last of the Olympic Trials wraps up in America for athletes from a long list of sports, USA Rugby’s most visible player just got a lift from one of the country’s biggest brands.
Secret Deodorant recently announced a partnership with Maher as a brand ambassador. The effort is part of the brand’s support of Team USA, in its participation in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
“Widely known for her standout collegiate career and for her United States representation in the 2020 Summer Olympics, Ilona Maher is also known for being an advocate for body positivity amongst women, promoting authenticity, and for her bold beauty choices,” Secret said in a statement.
Olympic gold medal legend Dara Torres: Listen to your body
“It’s really cool to partner with Secret, especially right before the Olympics,” Maher said. “Obviously, I’m in a sport where we get really close. We’re in scrum, we’re tackling each other, and we sweat a lot.”
“My personal brand is all about authenticity,” she said. Maher also notes that she and her teammates often joke about who is “the sweatiest player on the team,” but, “relaying it all to body positivity, sweating is the most natural thing in the world. Especially for an athlete.”
In addition to her new ambassadorship with Secret, Maher has also gained another partnership with Medalist, a new skincare brand aimed at “next-gen female athletes and active women” that will launch on July 1st to coincide with the Olympic Games.
Maher said that she hopes the visibility offered through the Olympics and social media continues to create opportunities for her and her teammates.
“It’s great to see that we are recognized as a cool group of girls and that people recognize what we’ve done as a team and all that our sport can do.”
Read Frye’s recent interviews with Dara Torres and Rose Lavelle.
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Source link : https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyfrye/2024/06/16/ilona-maher-and-usa-rugby-want-to-wow-olympic-sports-fans/
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Publish date : 2024-06-16 22:31:07
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